The Moderate Myth, Abortion and Sarah Palin

This is some very good stuff. We found it on a blog called Taxes, Stupidity, and Death:

The most damaging myth repeated today by so-called republicans is “We need to be more moderate, and the key to that moderation is the compromise of principle. Opposing abortion is so very provincial. Only a backward rube, or those who hate empowered women would willingly oppose a woman’s right to choose.”

[...]

There is simply no other process in this nation where a human being is deprived of life without due process of law... How can that not be antithetical to the very cornerstone of American liberty…the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?

[...]

Standing against such an evil is not the wrong place to be. It is the only place to be.

And it makes a difference in elections. The Left knows this better than they will ever admit, and certainly better than the voices of vanilla extolling the virtues of being a moderate. Don’t believe me? I have two words for you : Sarah Palin.

Her entry into the race energized a Republican base that up to that point regarded the prospect of a McSame Presidency as the slow train to the same place that Obama is running the express to. This is not my characterization; it is the characterization of the Old Media. Abortion supporters knew this. Her very political existence underscored every lie the Left and feminists have told women for decades. She was the living proof that a woman could be successful and happy with a family. She didn’t put off having children in order to ‘work on her career’. She rose to a position of power and prominence based on merit and hard work and actually taking a stand for principles. She believed in God, and wasn’t afraid or ashamed to do so. She didn’t have an abortion when she learned she was carrying a child that did not meet society’s definition of ‘normal’, and never would. She stood by a daughter who obviously did not abide by the abstinence she stressed, and did not seek an abortion for the child, or force her to get one herself.

This made her a threat, which was recognized immediately. In a race where the winning ticket selected Sheriff Slow Joe Biden for the same slot, she was the one constantly derided as stupid by the old media and the Left. Even after the loss, she remained a lightning rod for the usual suspects, who did everything they could to bring meritless ethics complaints against her in her capacity as governor, hack her personal email accounts, continue to try to shout her down in public fora, and ridicule her in the popular media, even after their own candidate won. Why? Because they know that she still has a great deal of popular support among the Republican “extremists” precisely because of who and what she is, and the Left simply cannot afford to let her go unmolested. To do so would be disastrous for them.

Of course, one might ask if they aren’t running scared because despite their best efforts, the worm is already turning?

But you've just gotta read the unabridged original, especially the part where  blogger Blackiswhite says that moderates essentially differ from liberals only in the sense that their old steam locomotive travels more slowly, but it's on the same set of tracks and headed for the same station as is the liberals' bullet train.

- JP